* WGLT takes a look at two approaches to data center restrictions…

In September 2025, Aurora had placed a moratorium on any new applications for data centers, because public backlash started to grow and the facilities were getting around zoning laws. […]

Under the city’s zoning laws, there was no consideration for data centers, and the facilities in Aurora, which house several different spaces for data collection of different companies at once, looked like warehouses anyway. […]

Meta and DeKalb’s new facility are still under zoning restrictions like building height and landscaping standards, but not much else. There’s also a line of sight study for the homes, which are a half mile to a mile away.

For the new facility, the project will pay half of the electricity tax it consumes for 20 years, but that only starts two years after it is fully energized.

For DeKalb, the city is largely enjoying the money the projects are bringing in, according to [City Manager Bill Nicklas]. He said stopping development is not the answer he has for data centers.

*** Statewide ***

* NBC Chicago | ‘Decisions that could be fatal:’ Over 46,000 Illinois residents dropped Obamacare this year: Without the substantial tax credits that had previously helped curb the plans’ costs, consumers buying health insurance on the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace are paying up to 60% more for coverage this year than they did last year, according to the Illinois Department of Insurance. Known as enhanced premium tax credits, the subsidies expired in December following months of heated debate in Congress, including the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Now, fewer people qualify for federal assistance to help offset the costs of their monthly premiums, and those who do still qualify may be getting smaller credits than in the past.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker signs new laws requiring businesses to accept cash, pay employees for jury duty: Employers will now have to pay their employees their full rate of pay while they are serving on jury duty under House Bill 4844. Businesses with 25 or fewer employees are exempt from the requirement, which begins immediately. […] Senate Bill 3314 requires higher education institutions to provide more transparency about how many credits their faculty members are teaching.

* Press release | Faver Dias, Edly-Allen Lead Push for Stronger Data Center Protections: To accomplish that, the lawmakers are urging the Illinois General Assembly to pass the Illinois POWER Act (House Bill 5513), legislation that would establish the state’s first comprehensive guardrails for hyperscale data centers and would require greater transparency around electricity and water consumption, prevent residential customers and small businesses from paying for electric infrastructure built primarily to serve hyperscale data centers, and require large facilities to plan for new clean energy resources or reduce electricity demand when the electric grid is under strain. Together, these protections would help ensure Illinois remains competitive for technology investment while preventing local communities and ratepayers from shouldering unnecessary costs.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Johnson blasts mayoral rival Giannoulias without naming him: Mayor Brandon Johnson charged Monday that the same billionaire business interests that closed schools and mental health clinics under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel are trying to “take us back to a time of trauma and torment” and declared that Chicago is “not going back.” Johnson never mentioned Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias by name. But on the day after Giannoulias entered the race with a promise to confront the thorny issue of school closings, Johnson used the comment to his political advantage.

* CBS Chicago | Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez sues over Illinois Board of Elections over congressional ballot requirements: Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) filed a lawsuit last week, taking the Illinois State Board of Elections to task for what he said are unnecessarily high hurdles for third-party candidates to get on the ballot. Sigcho-Lopez, who is running as an independent for Congress in Illinois 4th Congressional District to replace U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Illinois), filed the lawsuit Friday. Also named as a plaintiff was Jose Guerra, identified as a voter who “signed, supported, and circulated ballot access petitions” for Sigcho-Lopez.

* WTTW | CPS Set to Expand Whole School Safety Model Citywide: “Our goal is for every school to create a Whole School Safety Plan that promotes safety through policies and practices supporting the physical, behavioral, and social-emotional well-being of all students,” CPS Chief of Safety and Security Ronan Shableski said in a statement. Chicago’s Board of Education voted in July 2024 to officially remove all resource officers from the city’s schools following a student-led push in 2020 from teens who believed the presence of police in schools had a disproportionately negative impact on Black students and strengthened the school-to-prison pipeline.

* Tribune | Hundreds of Chicago police officers barred from testifying as discipline slowdown drags on: And as the city and the Fraternal Order of Police await resolution in the yearslong legal fight, records reviewed by the Tribune show local prosecutors have disqualified dozens of current Chicago Police Department officers from testifying in criminal cases, even as their disciplinary matters remain pending. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the state’s attorney’s office disclosed that 254 law enforcement officers in Cook County will not be called as witnesses for the prosecution following changes to office policy enacted last year. Of those, 240 work or have worked for CPD.

* Crain’s | Apartment complex on 606 trail sold for $42M: LG completed Trailhead Apartments in 2021, financing the construction with a $26.2 million loan, according to Cook County property records; it’s not clear what the project’s total development costs were. LG CEO Brian Goldberg didn’t respond to requests for comment on the sale. Interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve that started in 2022 have put downward pressure on pricing for all kinds of commercial properties, though apartment buildings remain an appealing prospect for investors amid Chicago’s strong rental demand and limited supply.

* Block Club | The 400 Theater Reopens To Lines Of Moviegoers In Rogers Park: ‘Like Nothing Had Changed’: Inside the theater, owner Jordan Stancil swept up popcorn before the next crowd poured in that afternoon. Stancil takes a hands-on approach to his job as the new operator of The 400 Theater, which it is now called after he dropped the “new” from the name. Just a few days before opening, he was tracking down a UPS truck that had mistakenly delivered the print of “Spiderman” to his home.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* 21st Show | How one Illinois prison is handling cases of serious mental illness: When the Joliet Treatment Center opened in 2017, the hope was that it would be a different kind of prison. The Illinois Department of Corrections, or IDOC, had settled a lawsuit over inadequate mental health care for people in state prisons. As part of that settlement, IDOC committed to building new treatment units including the one in Joliet. For the first few years, things went well at the prison. But around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, conditions started to deteriorate. That made the men there desperate to be heard and one way to do that was to set things on fire. In the past three years, there’ve been more than 70 fires at the Joliet Treatment Center. A journalist has been investigating why in a recent report on the Joliet Treatment Center in collaboration between The Marshall Project, WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times and she join the program today.

* Crain’s | AI data center boom drives $3.2 billion Chicago-area deal: Atkore, an electrical-products manufacturer based in Harvey, has decided to sell the company for $3.2 billion to Prysmian, a top maker of cables used in data centers. The Italian wire and cable maker said it will pay $95 per share in cash, or 30% more than Atkore’s stock value on Friday. The companies estimated the total value of the deal at $3.8 billion, including debt.

* Tribune | Proposed settlement would sell West Suburban and Weiss hospitals to Insight, pay current CEO as consultant: The motion filed Friday asks the judge to either enforce a settlement that it says the hospitals’ owners had agreed to in principle in May but never finalized, or appoint a receiver to take control of the hospitals. The motion publicly reveals, for the first time, the details of the potential settlement agreement. The motion was filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court by Ramco Healthcare Holdings, which owns the hospitals’ property. It was filed after an attorney for Resilience Healthcare, which operates the hospitals, said in court Friday that Resilience was not willing to move forward with the proposed settlement.

*** Downstate ***

* WSIU | Linda R. Baker named interim director of Paul Simon Public Policy Institute: Baker brings extensive executive leadership experience and a longstanding commitment to public service to the role. She will lead the institute’s mission to advance ethical government, expand opportunity and fair treatment, and promote responsible citizenship. Baker said she is honored to continue the work of the institute and its founder, the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon. “Throughout my years in public service, I have admired Senator Simon as a model of ethics and decency,” Baker said. “It has been an honor to help further the work of the institute, and I am humbled by the opportunity to help guide it into a bright and productive future.”

* WGLT | ACLU will be watching as new Uptown Normal code of conduct takes effect: The ACLU of Illinois asked the Town of Normal to repeal or change its revisions with the town council approved July 21, over objections from social service organizations who argued the rules target homeless people. The letter was cosigned by the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness. Rebecca Glenberg, chief litigation attorney for the First Amendment for the ACLU of Illinois, objected to three main points outlined in the code, including the town’s ban on soliciting.

* Capitol City Now | IL Treasurer Frerichs is prepared for State Fair auction: The goodies are from forgotten safe deposit boxes, and the treasurer said Monday they try for years to find the rightful owners. If the owner shows up after an item is sold, that person gets the money the treasurer’s office collected in the sale. “People like this. (Former treasurer, the late) Judy Baar Topinka did this. She loved the state fair,” said Frerichs. “People like a live auction. Our hope is that when they come on August 22, they stay, they bid, they have a good time, and then they also enjoy themselves at the fair.”

* IPM News | At Spunky Bottoms, an Illinois River wetland’s resilience is on display: The Nature Conservancy acquired the roughly 1,300-acre Merwin Preserve at Spunky Bottoms in the late 1990s and allowed the site to return to being a floodplain wetland. That has not come without challenges. The earthen levee continues to separate the site from the Illinois River. But a breach in 2013 allowed river water to pour into the wetland, affecting the fish and plant communities — and not in a good way.

* NPR Illinois | 5th Street in downtown Springfield to close for a week: Beginning Tuesday, August 4, 5th Street will be closed from Monroe Street to Edwards Street to allow for sanitary sewer repairs. The closure is anticipated to remain in place Tuesday, August 4 through Tuesday, August 11, weather permitting. Detour routes will be posted to help guide motorists around the work area.

*** National ***

* WIRED | The OpenAI and Anthropic AI Hacking Sprees Are a Messy New Legal Frontier: “Just because you’re using an AI agent or AI model, that shouldn’t somehow absolve you of any liability, but it’s going to depend a lot on the facts in the particular situations” as cases begin to be decided in courts, says Lauren Yu, a fellow with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, & Technology Project. Experts say that so-called agency law could be relevant given that the doctrine focuses on situations where a “principal” has given an “agent” permission and authority to act on their behalf. To be clear: The “agents” in this area of law have always been human.

* National Association of Home Builders | AI Data Centers Are Outbidding Home Builders for America’s Land: In March 2026, a data center developer reportedly began offering home owners in Ashburn’s Regency neighborhood about $4.4 million per acre to assemble a roughly 130-acre site. Median land prices in Northern Virginia are nowhere close to those figures. A 2025 land price analysis reported median land prices of about $125,000 per acre in Loudoun County and $93,750 per acre in Prince William County. The problem is not limited to Virginia. Other examples are occurring all across the country, such as: In Illinois, Stream Data Centers bought and razed 55 homes in Elk Grove Village to make way for a three-building data center campus.